Staple desserts of my 70's childhood - courtesy of a Bamix

[nilfiskga70]

Had a chat recently in the works canteen about life in the '70's. Mum was a great cook and she purchased an ESGE Bamix hand blender back in 1971/1972 - clearly remember it even as a small kid. It was Swiss made, and came with a blue wall mounted stand with mounting posts for the attachments - Mum's blender came with 3 fittings for the end of the blender; a 3-pronged one, a disc shaped one that had a built in 'wobble' and anothe rdisc shaped one with small cutouts. It also came with a coffee grinder, a 2-part chamber with a blade driven by a red extension shaft, the lower part was blue and the upper part clear. That mixer lasted for at least 30 years, had stripped it once to clean and lube the motor bearings. Mum also whipped up many a Bird's dessert with it - fond memories of Dream Topping, Angel Delight and Instant Whip!

 

[vacerator]

Wow, it has all

been done before! We have a Philips hand blender/chopper/whipper from the 90's. The first one I heard of was the Thunderstick in the late 80's.

 

[ozzie908]

Bamix

At one point were available via Womens Institute and were not cheap, My Mum and my sister Mum in law bought one each, Mums was the 2 speed one with the same parts as described above but was brown and clear, M I L bought the single speed one which was blue and clear and was never taken out the box from the day it was bought until it was given to my mum when hers burnt out from being much used. Mind you it wasn't from tasty puddings we weren't pudding people. Now I believe we only have the Braun multipratic that's similar to the Bamix and its used most weeks for soups and whipping cream etc....

 

[petek]

I found a complete Bamix set a few years ago at a thrift store.. THe stand, the cup, the coffee grinder and a few different blades. For years we'd see them being hawked at fairs and home shows but they were and still are outrageously priced. What I don't like about it is you cannot remove the shaft and put it in the dishwasher, it's a pain to clean the surround around the blade. I use it a lot for "scrambling" eggs. One of the tricks the hawker at the fairs would do is take a cup of skim milk, put that wavy disc on and turn the skim milk into a thick shake type drink.

 

[perc-o-prince]

One of the tricks the hawker at the fairs would do

Petek- remember when the info-mercial guys/gals did this in the '80's or'90's? It was a plain flat disc that was slightly off-center so it would whip air into the milk!

It's so true that so many things were "discovered" well before our recently modern society discovered them. Something as simple as Ron Popiel's spray hair now appears as a brand new product for covering grey. I can only imagine how much of that they're mailing out now!

That Bamix is cool! I love our Ronson Can-Do but an attachment for it that mimicked your Bamix would be great!

Chuck

p.s.- this one's mounted for display (see pic). On the opposite end of that cabinet is one that's hung for daily/weekly use. It's our can opener and egg scrambler of choice.

 

[brisnat81]

Hey Pete,

The bamix is self cleaning. The jug you whip in, just rinse it out, add some hot water and dish soap and run the bamix in there until clean.it takes 30 seconds and then just put the blade in the dishwasher.

You need to unscrew the blade guard once a year and put a drop of sewing machine oil in under the seal to keep the bearings lubricated. Mum still has my grandmothers from 1980, we had the capacitor and shaft bearings replaced about 10 years ago and it still chugs along. I have a Swissline varient that its now 15 years old, its never yet needed any service.

The one 80's accessory that I wish they'd bring back, is the Bamix bucket. its a 1 gallon bowl, with a lid that has a round hole in the centre. For whipping cream or blending soup, you can do large quantities without getting splashes anywhere. I have two of them and the writing and the plastic doesnt hold up well in the dishwasher. I'd buy a couple if they made them again in modern plastics.

They started being made by the Swiss in the 50's with the catchy name of Zauberstab. I dream of finding an early all metal model, they look nothing like the new ones.

Zauberstab roughly translates as Magic Wand, which was part of the magic of buying one originally.

 

[petek]

Chuck.. I have a Can Do too but I only found it with the knife sharpener attached. I'll have to keep my eye out for those stirrers.

Nathan; I do whizz it in warm soapy water but bit still remain stuck on the surround etc, particularly egg. Righ now I can't even get the blade off , it seems to be stuck..
I've always lubricated it by holding it upside down and dropping some oil down the shaft, thats how I saw it done on videos.. I didn't know the blade surround unscrews.. on all models ?

 

[foraloysius]

If they all unscrew, then mine certainly is stuck. Could I use a bit of WD40 on the blade surround to get it loose?

 

[petek]

guess I should have looked at youtube LOL

 

[foraloysius]

Me too! lol

Well, my blade comes off and I don't use it very much, so not going to bother with that right now.

 

[petek]

Done , lubed, cleaned and ready to go again. I had to let the shaft sit in a pot of off boiling water for about 5 minutes to loosen the surround from the shaft, after which it just unscrewed,, albeit it's reversed thread. A drop or so of sewing machine oil and run for a few secs upside down and voila..

 

[brisnat81]

Hey pete, thats a cool video, I'm always impressed by how they're almost made as well as they were 40 years ago.

I always remove the blade after a self rinse and run it through the dishwasher, so that seems to keep the drive shaft clean. With egg, I normally cup the end of it in my hand (While unplugged) and let cold water pool over it to rinse the egg off. Then run it in hot soapy water to clean it. If you plunge the raw egg into hot water then it does tend to glue itself on

I'm looking to get a new one for my Brother and Sister inlaw for when my first Niece gets towards solids.

 

[petek]

I tried that grinder attachment this afternoon on some onion and some mushrooms, toppings for a pizza. It's almost too fast and furious because I barely touched the button (about 2 seconds) and half of the mushrooms were pulverized, and much the same with the onions. At least know that I know I can take that end off and put it in the dishwasher, won't be so bad.

 

[perc-o-prince]

I'll have to keep my eye out for those stirrers.

Pete-

I've used the can opener function and the springy twisted metal one. Never the others. Maybe I should crack the booklet and see how useful they'd be!

I'll be keeping my eye out for a Bamix- it'll be a lot easier than pulling out the long Kitchen Aid stick blender and the other attachments will be used more than the KA ones since they're stored away in the same box!

Chuck

 

[petek]

I did have one of those Kitchenaid sticks a few years ago, it had a dial on the top to adjust speeds but it was like holding up a telephone pole and after a couple of uses and not liking it at all I gave it to my sister.. Now don't go construing that I hate my sister because I don't .

 

[thomasortega]

Kitchenaid

I had a kitchenaid and also gave it to my sister that was visited last year.

She loves it.

And I miss mine.

I had the Achitect series, the TOL version of the corded models.

I just with they made it in Empire red.

 

[foraloysius]

Had to order oil, didn't have that anymore. After it arrived I put the Bamix indeed in hot water and it worked! The surround came off and I was able to put a few drops of oil into the shaft. Works like new!

Jamie Oliver has a Bamix too.

 

[petek]

Now I have to try making a pesto sauce lol

 

[gfm8959]

does anyone remember

Jello 1-2-3
or
Cool n' Creamy pudding